Help required with DK tank Threat

[Zenithius]

Hi all at Tankspot

Iv had my tank for like 3 months and slowly built up his gear to a reasonable level. recently been having a few threat issues and wonder if someone could go over my talents and gear and suggest where am going wrong or what needs to be improved. Here is a link to my armory page

Regards Zenithius

The World of Warcraft Armory

[Zivh]

There are a few glaring details that you should probably change ASAP.

First off, never gem for Parry as the ratings are far less bang for your buck than Dodge.

Never gem for Crit/AP. AP should never be gemmed for in general (for DKs anyway), as Strength scales with +% and provides 2 AP per Str.

Put straight +24 stam gems in all blue slots, and either Dodge/Stam or Expertise/Stam in your red slots, and Hit/Stam in your yellow slots (until you are capped).

Put Armsman enchant on your gloves, you will appreciate the extra threat.

Your expertise is very very low for a DK tank. Your gear is pretty decent and I'm actually kind of surprised it is this low. Look especially for any + expertise pieces.

Try Blood Tanking. You will find that your threat generation will skyrocket on single/dual targets. If you are strictly a tank, you may want to keep your frost spec for AoE pulls, as some people have trouble AoE Blood Tanking.

For the most part your gear is good and your spec is decent. Re-gem and see how you do, and if you are still having problems, post your rotations and stuff. Maybe try the blood spec too

[Zenithius]

ok i appreciate the post will regem the stams etc and my rotation based on the spec i have is

single target IT PS BS BS OB FS with the rune strike as rune dump

aeo DnD IT PS PEST BB HB and again the rune strike

il give blood a go never gone blood before and will message back with my findings thanks

[Zivh]

Try a 1-disease rotation for Frost, you will need the Glyph of Howling Blast:

Single Target:
HB BS BS OB -> RS/FS Dump -> OBx2 BS BS

AoE:
HB DnD BB -> RS/FS Dump -> HB BB BB OB

You should have Rune Strike bound to your attacks as well, so that it goes off instead of your white attack whenever it is available.

[Zenithius]

hey thanks again, i have no idea about macros etc gonna try that rotation though just changed some gems n the armsman enchant passed 30K unbuffed n dodge up to just about 25% parry 18ish expertise is still low hopefully some gear will drop next time i go on guild run to naxx

[Zivh]

I had less expertise than that through Naxx25 and was fine with high hit rating. Expertise becomes more and more important as you get deeper into Ulduar.

As I just posted moments ago on another thread, the mechanic works like this:

Think of the game mechanic like this:

You swing. Game calculates (using your Hit Rating) whether or not you will hit your target.

Assuming your swing makes it to the mob from the above hit rating calculation, game calculates (using your Expertise Rating) whether or not the mob parries/dodges your attack.

If you dont hit the mob with your hit rating, your expertise will never have a chance to apply. This is why hit rating trumps expertise rating as your #1 stat to max.

As for macros, the ones you need right off the bat are very simple:

#showtooltip
/cast (shift click spell from your spellbook, such as Death Strike)
/cast (shift click Rune Strike from your spellbook)

Shift clicking isn't mandatory, you can type it out with the rank and everything but it prevents typos ^^

There are some good guides (and great posts) with the mandatory macros for DKs and other classes if you search the guides and forums here on TankSpot.

[Zenithius]

ok thanks i will have a look with regards the macros thanks again appreciate the quick replys

[Zivh]

NP and good luck!

[vine]

For the macros, try:

#showtooltip
/cast Obliterate
/cast !Rune Strike

#showtooltip
/cast Blood Strike
/cast !Rune Strike

The ! before the Rune Strike toggles the ability so it stays on if you spam the key, otherwise it may toggle off and Rune Strike will be cancelled.